Yeah, I don't know what to tell you on that. The last kit I put in, the guides were on snug, as I recall. I'm getting to close to a valve check, so I'll have to look for that play/"self-adjustment". Of course, I have engnbldr's steel guide kit in, so don't know if that will make a difference. I didn't pay enough attention to the periods I had an OEM kit in to notice play. As well, I would have NEVER noticed play on teardowns because last two R/R's the TC assembly was destroyed. First time, the chain just wore into the cover....right around 125k. Last time, the head was toast at a mere 80k or 90k.

As far as overtightening, there is a shank that stops the bolt from going so far in. However, overtightening could snap one of them puppies easily enough. That's a nightmare, if you're unprepared and inexperienced.

Furthermore, I have a friend with an '86 22r in his pick up who says he's never replaced the TC, either. Well over 100k miles on it. No noise. I've checked it myself. Who knows?

 

Do it however you like, but if the crank and cam should move out of alignment even one tooth during installation.......for some reason.......how will you know? It's not like it's a difficult task to align everything at TDC on the compression stroke. It's actually a real nice safety measure considering what could happen.

 

What happens if you pull the cam sprocket and the timing mark is at the bottom? ... no way to easily line up the mark... yeah, I guess you could hang the crank sprocket and chain from the cam sprocket and rotate things around until they line up with the cam and crank keyways, drop it down through the head and hope the crank sprocket doesn't hang up or fall out, but if you take it apart with the mark on the cam sprocket at ~12:00, it's that much easier to put back together.

 

I see what you mean now. Thanks.

 

To clarify a little, being off one tooth isn't disastrous in terms of valve collision, but it will be impossible to set ignition timing. In which case, you will then have to take everything apart once again to correct it. Bummer that will be.

 

I was thinking, for some odd dumb ass reason, that I could just put the timing links on the chain, on the timing marks on the sprokets in the position they were in once the old one came off, but the cam sproket and crank arent the same size so they wont be in sync. Dumb question on my part I should have thought about it a little more. I will just set the dots both at 12 o'clock on TDC and re time it. Better to be safe, than sorry.

 

If I recall correctly, the stock bolts are shouldered bolts that allow the stock plastic guide to float around a little. In the engnbldr kit with the steel guide, they tell you to not reuse them and to get new bolts but if everyone else is like I am, they just reused them and snugged them down on the steel guide and didn't lose sleep on it. The steel guide with the stock bolts will not float around at all. It snugs down nicely.

 

Shouldered.......that's what I meant.

Remember to use loctite. Or, thread tape works, too.

 

No need to negate your thinking. But, it's not really the size that's the determining factor here. Theoretically, they could be the same size, but given the nature of the business at hand, the sprockets/gears do have a tendency to move while yer in there tinkering. You've got everything no longer linked together at that point. It's just good to have the reference. So, yes......better safe than sorry.

 

Well, I'm not sure anymore . I know when I did the guides on my 91, they were tight- didn't float around at all. I noticed that the shoulder kept the bolts from going all the way in and breaking the plastic guide mount though.